“We need to use technology to actively engage students and do different things, not just do the same things differently.” David Andrade

With iPads becoming more popular in the classroom, I wanted to share the app evaluation and submission form I created for my school and now district. It is based on Harry Walker’s app rubric and with his permission I adapted it to fit our schools needs. This rubric will be used when the technology team at our school looks at the apps teachers have submitted for approval for their iPads. When I shared my idea with a colleague, Emily Casaboone @millielikesthis, she had a fantastic idea to go paperless by creating the submission forms using Google Docs. This also keeps them all in one place when you go to review them.

Our technology team consists of one teacher from each grade level, the technology teacher, a faciliator and administration. Our technology committee plans to meet five times a year; August (when school starts for those of us in the south) and then at the end of each quarter to review submissions.

Having an app evaluation process is becoming cricial in schools because you want to make sure the apps are promoting higher order thinking and not rote skills. You can’t judge an app based on it’s ratings in iTunes because they could be using the app for a different purpose and not for the classroom. In an article I read, Diane Darrow (@dianedarrow ) said it best, “Creating an app evaluation system that empowers teachers to delineate their own criteria puts curriculum design back into their hands.” We have to remember that just like technology is a tool in the classroom, so are the apps we use.